Today the Forth Bridge (that is the proper title of the Railway bridge spanning the Firth of Forth ) finally finishes being painted.
The extraordinary cantilever bridge - described by Billy Connolly as Scotland's Eiffel Tower (what an astute remark) - was, according to urban myth, painted all year and when the painters finished they started again from the other end!
I'm not sure how true that was but new technology means that it won't need painting for another 20 of so years and the poly sheeting that has covered it has been removed so you can see the old girl in all her glory!
One of my brother mentioned to me a wee while back that my late grandfather who had lost an eye in WWI finished off the Great War as a dispatch rider. He would often have to ride his motor bike across the Bridge in the dark - apparently there was a track of some description in the middle. How much this is family myth or fact I am not sure.
Oh I look forward to seeing it again when next home.
ReplyDeleteMy father grew up in the 'Ferry (North as opposed to South) and tells tales of accessing the hollow iron maintenance tubes. Iain Banks also spent some time there as a child and such experiences could be part of the genesis of his novel "The Bridge".